As we have said before, the 2014 amendments to the alimony statute allegedly made it easier to terminate alimony if the recipient of the alimony was cohabiting. The statute now provides that alimony may be terminated or suspended if cohabitation was proven. The statute made clear that the parties didn’t even have to live together
How the Economic Downturn and Financial Impact of Coronavirus Could Be Felt in 2021 and Beyond
An all too familiar, if not overused, term to describe all thing Covid 19/Corona virus is “unprecedented.” In an attempt to avoid politics, whether any of this was foreseeable or not, there is no dispute of the absolute financial devastation that the world wide pandemic as created. The stock market has cratered, many people are
When Dividing Deferred Compensation – Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say – To Avoid Future Litigation
It is not unusual for deferred compensation (eg. stock options, restricted shares, RSU, REUs, and a whole host of others) to be addressed in marital settlement agreements, either as assets divided in equitable distribution, for purposes of computing income for support, or both. Often the language is complicated and in some agreements it is incomprehensible.
Appellate Division Gives Guidance Regarding Life Insurance to Secure Alimony
Yesterday, I blogged on the S.W. v. G.M. case in a post entitled More from the Appellate Division on Lifestyle, Foulas and the Concept of Income Equalization. In that blog, I noted that the S.W. court also addressed the issue of life insurance to secure alimony.
It is not necessary to get into the facts
More From the Appellate Division on Lifestyle, Formulas and the Concept of Income Equalization
A few weeks ago, I authored a post on this blog entitled Debunking the Myth That the Percentage Used in the So-Called “Alimony Rule of Thumb” Should Go Down as the Payer’s Income Goes Up. That post reiterated that the Court’s cannot use formulas, but that they are often used and that people have
Debunking the Myth That Percentage Used in the So-Called “Alimony Rule of Thumb” Should Go Down as the Payer’s Income Goes Up
It has been said over and over again that there are no formula’s to determine alimony. As I have blogged in the past, other than one legal malpractice referencing the formula or “rule of thumb”, virtually every time the Appellate Division gets a case where a formula was used, the case is reversed
Does the Marital Lifestyle Matter When it Comes to Enforcing a Pre-nuptial Agreement?
A recent unpublished (non-precedential) decision, Steffens v. Steffens, suggests that the answer to the above question is “no.”
In Steffens, the Wife sought to set aside a prenuptial agreement, arguing that it was unconscionable, in large part because the alimony payments she was to receive under the agreement would not allow her to maintain
Decision of Errors – Imputation, Disability, Need for Support and Deviating from Guidelines
The recent unpublished decision of Gormley v. Gormley serves as a good reminder for four polestar issues in matrimonial litigation, below, as well as to put on your best evidence in an effort to ensure that the trial court enters the appropriate decision and, ultimately, to not stop litigating up the ladder when it fails
No Prima Facie Showing of Cohabitation = No Right to Discovery to Try to Prove It
For the second time in about a month, the Appellate Division has reversed improvidently granted discovery when there hadn’t been a showing of a change of circumstance. As noted by Eliana Baer on this blog on August 12, 2019 (about a case she and I were involved in) in a post entitled Appellate Division Rules:
So, You Think You Don’t Have to Share That Inheritance?
One of the more complex issues we see when addressing alimony and equitable distribution relates to inherited assets and the money (distributions, investment experience, interest, etc.) that emanates from them. Under New Jersey law, inherited assets remain the exempt, separate property of the spouse who inherited same. It cannot be distributed in whole or in